Opinion: An avalanche of lies in social media designed for emotional response

Dmitry Zhuk believes that massive misinformation, fakes is not a journalistic problem. It is one of the elements of hybrid wars which are now being waged all over the world. “It's just that the press has recently become an active participant in these wars thanks to technology. These wars breed on a conflict, a conflict of civilizational values. They are trying to impose a different way of thinking, different moral values and moral attitudes,” he said.

“Indeed, digitalization and progress have created the technological basis for manipulating the public consciousness,” Dmitry Zhuk said. “What things distinguish official media? We adhere to some editorial rules, comply with laws, etc. What we are facing is, in fact, an anonymous attack aimed at whipping up emotions and channeling them into certain destructive activities,” Dmitry Zhuk said.

He also pointed out the issue of humanitarian education in school. “The domination of technocracy in the secondary school curriculum has overshadowed the humanitarian tradition of the Soviet education: knowledge and understanding of moral values and traditions, the ability to analyze, and to think critically. Nowadays, this avalanche of lies from Telegram channels and social networks is meant to provoke emotional response. Negative emotions are far stronger than positive ones and easily spur people into action. The consequences are irrelevant in this situation, because the desired effect is achieved,” Dmitry Zhuk noted.

“Most importantly, we should understand: as long as we do not control platforms that spread such information, we are doomed to lose. Because our accounts and channels in Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other networks will be blocked. This will be done for political reasons. The situation with Trump's tweets is a good example. It seems to me, that the Democrats in the USA have already won over democracy,” he added.